Title: The Hidden Motives Behind the Lack of Presidential Election

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi affirmed that "we can only view the Lebanese reality without a president for a year and a half as if nothing has happened, as the constitution dictates that there can be no day of vacancy in the presidential office. He noted that Article 73 of the constitution stipulates that the president's successor should be elected two months before the end of the predecessor's term. What are the implications of this intentional vacancy, with southern Lebanon threatened by war, or rather in a state of cold war: houses are being destroyed, fires in orchards and cultivated lands, casualties are falling, people are being displaced and emigrating, and new maps are being drawn in the Middle East, along with border demarcations between Lebanon and Israel, and between it and Syria," questioning: "What are the hidden motives behind the failure to elect a president?" Al-Rahi opened today the Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church in Bkerke.